Cerity Partners LLC Grows Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 11.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 185,251 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 19,408 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $13,101,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,331,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,620,232,000 after purchasing an additional 8,664,707 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,065,224 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $829,511,000 after buying an additional 529,817 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 65.6% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,940,770 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $795,136,000 after buying an additional 4,732,333 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 6,819,124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $432,946,000 after buying an additional 302,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,639,296 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $358,039,000 after buying an additional 699,297 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.0 %

WRB opened at $82.15 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $84.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $75.32. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $55.50 and a one year high of $89.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.08 billion, a PE ratio of 16.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.57.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.10. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.03% and a net margin of 11.38%. The company had revenue of $3.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.98 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.70%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $92.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.22.

About W. R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines.